


Forever and a Day

by ImperfectOrphanage



Category: Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-25
Updated: 2017-03-25
Packaged: 2018-10-10 14:05:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10439331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImperfectOrphanage/pseuds/ImperfectOrphanage
Summary: Being close to the Composer was akin to bathing in the sun.





	

Joshua hadn’t been in a cancer ward since he was a child following his father around to learn about the ins and outs of the hospital. His father often brought him to work on days he wasn’t in school. Joshua learned a lot about life and death, and the futile struggle to stay healthy and alive.

It was simultaneously depressing and hopeful in the ward. People were getting better, but others were getting sick. Children were dying of simple tumors, and older men and women were giving up after years of not getting better. Joshua walked past the rooms with his hand trailing along the wall. He could feel the anger, the sadness, and the sheer powerlessness of the victims.

His other hand was busy holding a gift from the gift shop and a bouquet of pencils and pens. He hoped Neku would like the gift. It would have been rude to bring flowers.

“Room 602,” he said, reading the tag on the wall. Inside he saw a bed and a curtain, and a large window gazing out at the city. He could feel Neku’s weak energy.

Taking a breath, Joshua entered the room and walked toward the bed behind the curtain. He took a seat at the chair next to the bed and set the gifts down on the table next to it. Joshua didn’t want to wake Neku up as he looked exhausted, but he wanted to talk to the boy. He wanted to apologize for all the wrong he had done and for the wrong he was currently making Neku suffer with.

Composers were made of the pure, refined energy of their city. Joshua had spent a week with Neku fighting alongside him against the Noise. His soul was too brilliant and too powerful for Neku to handle, but Neku had handled it with as much patience as he could muster.

It shouldn’t have affected his body. It should only have affected his soul.

But here Neku was, in a hospital bed, dying of cancer because of Joshua.

The boy shifted on the bed. He moaned in his sleep, fluttered his eyes, and eventually woke up to give the entire room a once over. In the middle of it, he saw Joshua, and he smiled.

“Hey, you came,” Neku said, voice hoarse and weak.

Joshua nodded. “Forgive me for not coming sooner. I wanted to meet your friends at Hachiko and yet I was not allowed.”

“But you’re allowed now,” he replied, smiling, “because I’m dying.”

“Neku…”

“Don’t try and deny it, Josh. I don’t want lies and I don’t want it sugarcoated. I’m dying. The chemo isn’t working and the cancer spread to my liver.” He turned his head to the side and saw the gifts. “You brought me a present? It’s cute. I like dogs.”

“I know,” he said, picking the plush poodle up to hand to Neku, “I thought you would like company.”

Neku held the dog to his chest. “Thanks. Uh, do you want to stay a while? I don’t get many visitors. Everyone has school and stuff. I told them not to worry. Shiki makes it on the weekends and Beat comes by every other week to play chess. Mr. H sent me a sketchpad and a few pencils. It’s boring sitting in a bed half-drunk with medication.”

“Do you have a television?”

“Nope. They let me use a tablet though. I can watch YouTube on it. But only from ten in the morning to eight at night. The hospital thinks sleep is going to make the cancer go away I guess.”

He reached out to Neku, clamping his hand around the once Player’s fingers. “I’m sorry, Neku. If I had known-“

“It’s okay,” he said. “You didn’t mean it.”

Joshua looked up at Neku, eyes wide. “You know?”

“Mr. H told me about it. He texts me here and there to keep me up to date on how the city is doing. He’s worried about you. You’ve been withdrawn and the city is upset. Don’t be sad, Josh. I’m okay. Really.”

“I took one of the most creative people in Shibuya and I poisoned them with my greed. If I had not made a bet with Megumi…if I hadn’t been so blind to my own grief…if I hadn’t-“

Neku put a hand to Joshua’s mouth. “Stop. You can’t change it. If you hadn’t have done what you did I wouldn’t have had a happy life anyway. Don’t blame yourself.”

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, fingers squeezing Neku’s. Joshua didn’t want to take his entire hand for the tubes and such running through the veins. “You are suffering because I was selfish.”

“Dude, don’t worry about it. I’m happy. If you’re apologizing for something and realizing that you can be a selfish asshole, it’s good. I’d die all over again if it helps Shibuya.”

Joshua flinched. He had done too good of a job changing Neku from a ball of anger to a happy, productive teenager with friends. “Neku, I want to make it up to you.”

He said nothing in response. Neku turned his head to watch the silhouettes of people in the hall reflected on the curtain around his bed. The beeping of the heart monitor and the dripping of the medicine bag were deafening to Joshua. He wanted to stop it. He wanted to take Neku out of the hospital and keep him safe in the UG.

“I can’t play the Game again.”

Joshua sat up straight. “Why do you think so?”

Continuing to stare at the curtain, Neku spoke, voice soft. “Megumi told me, in the third week, that I was banned from future Games.”

“It isn’t that,” Joshua said. “You are dying of an illness. If you played the Game and won, you would return with the possibility of dying in days, weeks, months, or years. It would extend your life but only to a certain point. I cannot let you play. It wouldn’t be right.”

Neku smiled. “I don’t want to come back.”

“Where would you like to go?” Joshua knew it wasn’t in Neku’s best interest to entertain thoughts of death and the afterlife. If he focused on it, Neku wouldn’t fight as hard to live.

But watching him, Joshua knew it was already too late.

Neku had accepted death. He was alright with the inevitability.

“I was thinking,” he whispered, and turned onto his side to face Joshua. The oxygen tube wiggled in his nose and he sneezed before adjusting it. “Do you think I could stay with you for a while?”

There were no open positions in the UG aside from Harrier and Support. Joshua knew Neku wouldn’t want to do those jobs because of the need to Erase people, and because they were not allowed to know who the Composer was. The only position suitable for Neku would have been Conductor or Producer, and since both were filled, he couldn’t respond favorably.

“I didn’t think so,” Neku laughed. “I just thought it’d be nice, is all. You need more friends.”

It was Joshua’s turn to laugh. “Composers are not allowed friendship.”

“That sucks. Maybe you could turn me into Noise and I could keep you company.”

Joshua reached out to pet the stuffed dog. “I don’t think you’d be particularly interested in eating Players and Reapers who failed their jobs.”

“Probably not,” Neku sighed. His eyes were growing heavy. “Josh?”

“Yes, Neku?”

“Will you stay with me tonight? I don’t want to be alone.”

Joshua nodded. He kept his hand in Neku’s. “I won’t leave your side.”

“Thanks,” he said, voice distant. “I’m really tired. You’ll be here when I wake up, right?”

“Yes. I will always be here for you, Neku. Never forget it.”

Neku opened his eyes. He smiled at Joshua with genuine happiness. “Thank you for everything, Joshua. I’m glad I met you.”

He wanted to reply but Neku faded into sleep. Joshua watched over him until he woke the next morning and he continued to watch over him in turns throughout the next week. It was in the middle of the day on a Friday, when Joshua needed a quick pick me up from the vending machine. He took a sip of the stale coffee and returned to the room, only to see nurses and doctors fighting to keep Neku alive.

“Come on, Sakuraba,” the doctor said. “Clear!”

Joshua’s hands shook. The coffee nearly fell and he dumped it into a trashcan as he watched from a distance as they tried to get Neku back.

It wouldn’t work. Joshua knew it wouldn’t work because Neku’s body was empty. The music usually present in his skin had gone. Joshua hadn’t been there to help him transition. He hadn’t been there to hold his hand as he died. He hadn’t been there.

“Neku…”

“Don’t be such a pansy,” the boy’s voice said.

Joshua whirled around and saw Neku standing in the hallway, smile on his lips. Directly behind Neku was his mother, and she also smiled as she embraced Neku.

“Neku, I’m-“

“If you say sorry one more time I’m going to reincarnate just to clock you.”

He couldn’t help but laugh. “Fine, fine. Will I see you again?”

“It’s a promise,” Neku said, form beginning to fade. He reached out, touched Joshua’s hand, and continued to smile peacefully. “I can’t leave you alone for long. You’ll get ideas.”

Joshua tried to curl his hand around Neku’s but he had lost any physicality. He watched as the light faded around Neku and both he and his mother were gone.

Doctors and nurses passed by. The ones working on Neku had called his time of death and they covered him up before hurrying off to other things.

A few floors away, Joshua heard the discordant cry of a child being born.

He smiled.


End file.
